FIRST MISSION BDAY!!!

Heyyy guys what's up!!!!! Today's my first missionary birthday which is super exciting! It's been a great birthday so far and it's pretty lucky that I have my birthday on pday! This last week was pretty wild and I've got some crazy stories to share!!

Last Monday: So after pday ended last week, we had a visit with one of our friends who's on date for baptism and her mom brought me out a tamale which was super nice! I looked at the tamale and it looked like someone had actually already eaten it and then threw it up on the plate. It was super nice of them to make me food though so I took a big old bite and it tasted like it looked. I felt so bad cause there was no chance I was gonna be able to eat it. I still feel bad for what I did. We were outside for the lesson and I scooped the whole tamale in my hand when she wasnt looking and I pointed behind our friend Yaritza and said, "woah what is that right there?" And when she turned away from me to look, I chucked the big heap of tamale over my head backwards into the road. It worked perfectly. She said she didn't see anything and I said, "oh nevermind it's gone now." I impress myself everyday cause that worked great. Me and my comp were trying so hard not to laugh. Also that night, we were biking and stopped at a red light and there was tons of cop cars and caution tape around the gas station right next to us. I saw shattered glass all over the ground too and then I saw a dead body on the ground. It was super scary and I wish I didn't see it. We found out later that it was a shooting and the man died. Literally right by our house too and it was sketchy.

Tuesday: Not much happened but I led a FIRE restoration lesson in Spanish and I felt so good about myself. We also found this old lady who told us she's a crackhead and she was very scary. It was one of the weirdest conversations I've ever had. At the end of the lesson though she went in and gave me a hug and lemme tell you, she may have been an old crackhead lady mission her front 6 teeth, but that hug from her was so needed. Top 5 mission moment was that hug from that sweet lady.

Thursday: OK I want to share some funny stories about my roommate Elder Barnard. This man has the most severe adhd I've ever seen in my life. Like I thought my adhd was bad, but he's on his own different level. He's also the most gullible person I've ever met. But I love him so dearly. So all of my roommates started dieting and anytime they wanna eat something, they come to me and ask if it's ok that they eat it which is funny. Elder Barnsrd was making eggs for breakfast because I told him it was good protein and he was cooking eggs sunnyside up and I walked up to him and said, "dude, they don't have as much protein if you don't scramble the eggs." And he goes, "oh shoot." And starts scrambling the eggs haha. I started laughing so hard and said, "dude I was kidding that doesn't even make sense." Then he sat there for awhile and said, "oh shoot ya you got me." It was hilarious. Then we were doing zone conference online and I was just feeling the spirit so strongly as we talked about rhe atonement and the spirit was so strong. Then out of nowhere, Elder Barnard goes, "yo I just thought of the worst torturing method ever." I just said, "oh, thats sick." Then he proceeded to describe the most horrific torturing method ever during zone conference. I thought it was so funny cause it was the most random thing ever. Then that night, I was trying to think of this Islamic guy's name and we were thinking of Islamic names it could be. Then I said, "wait I think his name was McLovin." If you know, you know. Then he goes, "oh I didn't know McLovin was an Islamic name." And I thought he was joking so I said, "oh ya its  like the most common Islamic name." And he goes, "oh wow that's crazy." Then I told him it was a joke and I didn't think he'd actually believe it. Such a funny guy. We had dinner with a mexican family that night and it was sooo spicy and she made me put extra hot sauce and ground up peppers on it and I had literally tears, sweat, and snot just dripping down my face. It was so spicy. Then they gave me some Tums and Peptobismol cause I told them it was gonna wreck me haha. It was brutal. 

Saturday: Saturday night I almost killed a member in our roommates ward. He came by and knocked on our door to bring them dinner and I swung the door open and he was bent over leaving the dinner at the front porch and the door swung open and the doorknob just slammed into his head and he was like 85 years old. The door thumped his head and I wad confused what I hit and I looked out and there was an elderly man just stumbling backwards trying not to fall. The dude almost fell over and got knocked out I felt so bad. He was nice though and forgave me. Also, GCU always has wild parties on the weekend and there was this house right off of campus and there was probably 300 people there. Again, I felt like an absolute idiot biking through all of them and I hated it. All of a sudden, like 5 cop cars just started weaving through traffic and pulled up and were screaming at everyone to leave and we got mixed in with all the people running. A helicopter came and shined its big spotlight at the party and started yelling from the helicopter to evacuate and leave. Everyone ran off and it was pretty wild. I still don't know what happened. Then we had a lesson with this guy who was drinking beer during our lesson but he was nice. And during the lesson his wife comes out and was screaming at him in Spanish saying, "antonio you said that you'd never have these guys over again!!! You're totally disrespecting your catholic beliefs, they have their own bible!!" We just sat there and it was awkward. And he said, "no they are catholic!" And then he looked at us for approval and we said, "no, we're lds." Then he said it was OK, very awkward though.

Sunday: Ok Sunday was absolutely crazy. We missed the superbowl and all night we were knocking doors trying to find people watching the game so we could watch it but everyone's Hispanic and they don't watch it. One of the guys answered and invited us in and my comp said, "are you watching the superbowl?" And he said no, so my comp said, "oh well then we actually dont have too much time, we need go head out soon." I was shook that he did it but it was pretty funny and we just talked to him on his porch. Then we were biking and saw a lady parked on the side of the road and she was helping a Husky who got hit by a car and had broken it's back lega and hip and it was all blood and so sad. We tried helping but there wasn't much we could do. Then we started leaving, a truck with a huge trailer didn't see her car parked on the side of the road and didn't break in time and he started breaking and swerving and swerved onto the sidewalk where we just were and the lady was there with the dog and he scraped all along the side of her car and I thought he ran her over. So I rushed over and he had ran over the dog again and she jumped out of the way last second into the road. He drove off and it was a hit and run and I helped the lady with her car and moved the dog til the cops got there. It was wild.

Spiritual: I've been challenged to read Enos everyday for 2 weeks and it's been so awesome! It's such an amazing story about the power of the Atonement and how it can change out lives. I love how he said he hungered for a supplication for his soul and it took him praying all night to receive a remission of sins. He feels so much joy afterwards and we can all feel that way! I'd invite you all to go and read Enos and really study it!!

I really love you all and go read your scriptures!!! Jesucristo vive!!!

My address to send something: 6833 W Bell Rd, Glendale, AZ 85308

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